Man Caught With 85 Pot Plants After Ordering Cocaine on the Darknet

According to a press release from the Police Headquarters in Lower Bavaria, Deggendorf investigators received word that a man living in Zwiesel had ordered cocaine from the darknet. At request of the Deggendorf prosecutor, officers arrived at the suspect’s apartment after the cocaine would have arrived, only to find 85 cannabis plants at various stages of growth and large amounts of dried marijuana clippings and dried buds. One third of the plants, the press release revealed, had already started blooming and could have been harvested.

This case marks the second time that German police investigated and/or raided a suspect for one crime, only to find that they had investigated the wrong crime. In one case, only days apart from the arrest of the marijuana grower, police suspected that a 20-year-old in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, had ordered a number of fake Euro notes from a darknet vendor in Spring 2017. After months of investigation, the BKA finally identified and raided the man for possession of counterfeit Euros. The police faced one problem: when they searched the 20-year-old’s apartment, they failed to locate any counterfeit notes. They did, however, find a large-scale drug trafficking operation.

The BKA locked up the North Rhine-Westphalia suspect on charges linked to drug possession, distribution, and receiving counterfeit currency. In Zwiesel, the so-called “marijuana cultivator” fared similarly. Despite the fact that the police had not located any cocaine or any proof that it had actually arrived at the suspect’s house, the prosecutor confirmed that the charges connected to marijuana cultivation and cocaine possession.

According to the police, not only did the suspect successfully grow a massive number of cannabis plants, but he did so in two separate grow rooms. The two facilities contained a combined total of 85 plants, but only one third had reached a level of maturity the police called “ready to be harvested.” The suspect had more than 250 grams of dried marijuana clippings from an earlier harvest. Inside the suspect’s apartment, police officers also found 15 grams of dried buds.

Despite not using cocaine, German news outlet Focus.de wrote, the prosecutor still charged the suspect for ordering cocaine from a darknet marketplace. In the case of the 20-year-old investigated for buying counterfeit euros, police investigators seized the suspect’s computers during an apartment raid. They planned to find the evidence needed for the counterfeit charge on the computers. The Lower Bavarian Police Headquarters, in their press release, made no mention of seized computers or additional evidence to further the prosecution’s case.

In addition to the cocaine charge, the “cannabis cultivator” received charges that reflected his crime of growing marijuana. As of the most recent press release from the Bavarian police, the public remains in the dark as to whether or not all 85 plants were intended for personal consumption or if they were meant for distribution. The prosecutor charged him with “several breaches of the Narcotics Act.”